As those who have tried to order a Kindle (Amazon's Wireless Reading Device) lately are aware, the backorder time is now up to approximately 3 months for a new Kindle. Used Kindles are being sold for roughly two times retail ($700-$850) at Amazon and on Ebay. But, there is still a way to get a "new" Kindle for Christmas and it costs LESS than $359. Amazon is selling their refurbished Kindles for $329. They are currently in stock and you can easily have one in had next week, giving you plenty of time to test it out and load it up with free books before Christmas arrives.

I'm not sure that there is only one - the refurb option is only there when they have one or more in stock (and they probably limit you to one when purchasing). Since it is from amazon, I don't think the number of "offers" corresponds to the number of units (I suspect a bunch were refused on delivery when the $50 Oprah coupon hit, as that is what customer support told people to do with them: in order to get the coupon price, they had to place a second order.

Then again, if there is only one left, the first person there gets it!

Your third? Either you're very clumsy, or you'd better be giving those others to somebody deserving!

I am mostly loaning them to friends who want to try out a Kindle, but don't want to purchase one just yet. My second was on loan to a good friend, but she's in the hospital right now, so it's home with me for the moment getting loaded up with free books I think she might enjoy when she gets well and comes home. If her family decides to get her a Kindle for Christmas, it will come back to me .... if not, then it stays with her a bit longer (because she really loves the thing).

seems high priced for a refurb, I'd wait for the new one to come in, but people do get desperate around Christmas

I figure, it comes with the same return and warranty as a new phone, and since it's a refurb by the factory, it's going to be a damn good one.

So .... it's a win/win. Further, I am in no way "desperate" to get a Kindle. I have enough of them and don't mind the wait at all. However, this is a good price and I'm getting it because I can make good use of it.

I almost got one to sell on Ebay. Then I decided to do the right thing, and created a listing that points to the Amazon page.

There's nothing wrong with people selling them on eBay. How else are us non-US residents to get a Kindle? Pity there is such heavy demand driving eBay prices up because if they were a bit cheaper I would buy one. But for now I'm going to hold off and hopefully if the Kindle 2 is released in 2009 it will either be available in Australia (unlikely) or lower the prices of 1st gen Kindles.